Community in my woods
The trees in the wooded area behind my house are fully leafed out now, and there is a lot of community activity. Here are just a few observations:
Last week, I saw what I thought was a fisher slinking through the woods. Based on comments from jobird and sophie, I read about it further and I think it was actually a stoat. I saw it again yesterday, carrying a chipmunk, and I still think it’s a stoat. It was about twice the size of its prey. It made absolutely no sound slinking along the stone wall - very quiet and stealthy. I only heard it as it was going through the leaves on the forest floor. I once had to catch a chipmunk inside my house, so I know how hard that is!
There are a lot of bees - different kinds - around the flowering trees right now. There are two different small flowering trees on the edge of the woods. They are near the burrow in the ground that I saw a bee go into one week ago. The bees clearly prefer one flowering tree over the other. It is almost humming with all of the bees, but they are smaller than the one I saw last week in the burrow. And it’s very hard to get a picture. I’ve also seen a few bigger bumblebees in the tree flowers.
I’ve seen and heard the pileated woodpeckers eating insects off of the trees.
I’ve seen a robin pulling an earthworm from the ground.
I also observed an orange-yellow rust on one of the trees at the edge of the woods. It’s on multiple leaves and on a few branches. I don’t know if it’s harmful to the tree, or neutral. The tree looks very healthy right now. It’s the same tree the bees buzz around, but I don’t believe it’s pollen that I’m seeing.
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This is great!! I am glad that I was able to help you identify it!! I think it's wonderful that you have one around. I have only seen one in the wild once and it was in the winter and I saw it dash underneath my shed. That orange yellow rust is really fascinating looking!!! It is definetly not pollen.
Wow, that stoat sighting sounds exciting! I, too have been trying hard to get pictures of some of the bees flying around my flowering bushes with little luck! I think I saw some of that same rust as you today on some plants at the edge of the woods.
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